WILL Addison is determined to enjoy his game time in an Ulster shirt this season. The 31-year-old full back has been plagued with a catalogue of injuries since moving to the Kingspan Stadium from English Premiership club Sale Sharks in the summer of 2018.
Addison had only played five games for Ulster – who host Edinburgh this weekend in the BKT United Rugby Championship – before being capped by Ireland, but his career has been stalled due to a list of setbacks and he has only made 10 appearances for the province in the last four seasons.
Addison missed the whole of the 2022/23 campaign and admits he thought of hanging his boots up.
“I definitely thought that as soon as I broke my leg,” he said.
“It was one of possibilities that went through my head because I’d got back from a really serious back injury, worked unbelievably hard to get back from that, played a number of games for Ulster at the end of the ’21 season, got back into the Irish team and was training with them over the summer and then three or four games into the new season broke my leg,” explained Addison.
“So the emotions of that hit me really hard initially so there was definitely a point there where I was fancying quitting but being the competitive beast I am, I was quickly thinking ‘let’s get back on the horse’.
“And that’s what happened and as I said there were a number of huge obstacles in the way and I’ve spoken about having a second operation a year after the first, getting an infection, getting a blood clot and I think at each of those obstacles you kind of think, ‘Is this a sign’.
“But once you get through that period and you get back into the gym, into working with the rehab guys, working with the rugby guys, you quickly get a good gauge whether it’s going to come good or turn bad.
“And fortunately for me, after every one of those obstacles they were followed by improvement, and I think if I didn’t have that improvement, I may have gone down a dark track but luckily I didn’t have that problem.
“I guess you never want to be thankful for all the injuries I’ve had over the years, but I think I’ve learnt I’m resilient and I’ll get through these sorts of things.
“A year ago, I was in the Royal Victoria Hospital for two weeks on an IV line and that wasn’t too much fun.
“Operations, ups and downs, yeah, loads of low points.
“I’d rather concentrate on the high points now of being back.
“Fortunately I had the support of my family, the club have been brilliant to me and have stood by me through really difficult times, but I’d had medical obstacles, an infection in a leg with a load of metal work was really complex around this time last year and then having a PICC line that ended up in a blood clot.”
Naturally Addison is hoping for an injury-free season.
“It’s still pinch myself and know how lucky I am to have got through what I’ve done obviously off the back of a lot of hard work from myself and physios and everyone but, yeah, I pinch myself that I’m back and really enjoying it and it’s just really enjoying the training weeks more than anything.
“Just being back with the lads day to day it’s just such a blessing and then to run out at the weekend, especially at home, is awesome so hopefully it highlights just how lucky we are to be doing what we’re doing and I try and convey that message as much as I can because it’s definitely something that hits home for me.”
